Trusting in God's Saving Power

Today’s readings, for me, are about utter dependence upon and trust of God and God’s eternal faithfulness to humankind.  The first reading deals with political disasters—the Assyrians invade the Northern Kingdom, destroy the city and drive the people into exile.  In the Gospel, the disciples’ boat is on the verge of capsizing in a turbulent sea.  Out of nowhere, between 3:00-6:00 a.m., Jesus, though not recognized, is seen walking on the sea, coming toward the boat.  They cry out: “It is a ghost.” Jesus responds: “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”  Peter says: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Peter starts out, doubts, almost drowns and cries out: “Lord, save me!” 

What lessons for you and me!  The world is in no better shape than when the Assyrians invaded the Northern Kingdom.  We have nations rising up against nations to this very day, destroying cities, driving people out of their homelands. Personal disasters also touch every person’s life, multiple times, it seems. This is life “in this vale of tears.”

Like Peter, we have the option of crying out to the Lord: “Lord, save us.”  And He will.  We also know in faith, that, as in the Old Testament, God is a warrior who fights for us, who comes to our aid, and is close to the brokenhearted who seek Him above all and in all and through all.  Evil will not triumph, even though it may look that way. With the author of psalm 89, we pray:  “O Lord, you have been our refuge through all generations. Before the mountains were begotten and the earth and the world were brought forth, from everlasting to everlasting you are God!”

Being transformed and transforming life by Love

Today is the Transfiguration of our Lord on Mount Tabor.  This event occurred a few days after the Lord had announced to the apostles His upcoming death on Calvary.  He took Peter, James and John, the same three who accompanied Him to Gethsemane, with Him. I asked Jesus in prayer to talk to me about this event. In the depth of my being the following message was heard:

It happened as described in the Gospels (Mk 9: 2-10, Mt. 17: 1-8, Lk 9:28-36) shortly before my going up to Jerusalem to leave this world through the door of death.  The Transfiguration prepared me for that event. Moses and Elijah spoke to Me about my death and rising from the dead, a consummation of My mission here on earth to transform all that destroys life, seemingly so, into new life, into a joy, a strength, no one can take  from you.

My death and resurrection would be the culmination and completion of My total gift of self to My Father, a love unequalled, untarnished, not only to My Father but also to you and all humankind, a love glorified; a transcendent, imminent love, an all-encompassing love, a universal love for all to see and experience, a love to be imitated on earth by humankind's gift of self to one another in marriage and/or in service to humankind as men and women of God in the Church, in God's kingdom here on earth.

In what ways are you and I emulating this love?  How much of myself am I willing to give to others in humble service in obedience to the Spirit guiding me as it guided our Lord throughout His life here on earth?

Jesus, the Living Bread from heaven

In today's first reading, Ex 16:2-4, 12-15, God responds to the people's need for food. They are out in the desert, totally dependent upon God to keep them alive, to continue the journey to the Promised Land, and to thrive.  Only through the glorious deeds of the Lord, the Lord's compassion and love, is this possible for them and for us. God sends down food from heaven in abundance to meet their physical needs.  In the Gospel, Jn 6: 24-35, Jesus reveals that He is the Living Bread come down from heaven.  All who believe in Jesus and eat of His body and drink of His blood  will have eternal life.  Jesus gives of His total self for our salvation.  Fullness of Life, an abundance of Life, is a reality for all those who believe and imitate Christ's life of total self-giving, whether that be in marriage between husband and wife who, loyal  and committed to one another,  become "bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh," (cf. Gen) or whether in religious life, priesthood or the single life  where individuals surrender totally to the Lord in service to the People of God, the Church.  In other words, as Jesus says to His disciples in today's Gospel, fullness of life is not about perishable things but the imperishable, that is, about LOVE, the love modelled in the Trinity between the Father and the Son through the Spirit in the total gift of self to one another for the sake of other's well-being, yours and mine.  For whom, am I willing to give totally of self? 

Today's reading from Jeremiah is a continuation from yesterdays in which Jeremiah's opponents want to put him to death.  A defender challenges his accusers, reminding them that Jeremiah is speaking on behalf of the Lord.   Jeremiah is so confident that he was carrying out God's command that he feared no evil, not even death.  He could say to those who wanted him dead: "I am in your hands; do with me what you think good or right."  In faith, I asked the Lord to speak to me. The heard the following message within my spirit self:

Dorothy Ann, Jeremiah was given that courage by Me. I gave that same power to you in your baptism and confirmation and in every Eucharist and in the reading of the Word. I perfect it in you through the events of your life and in your sharing those events with me.  You are growing strong in the faith. Your trust in Me is  deepeneing and your love is being set ablaze.

My response was: Thank you!  Mother/Father God, Christ Jesus, and Holy Spirit, have mercy on me.  Transform my disbelief, my doubts, my weakness into even deeper faith, stronger trust, and an even  more ablazing love. Open my eyes to see You at work in me and in others, my ears to hear your Word, my will to follow You and my heart to love you.

My prayer is the same for you who read this.  As you reflect on Jeremiah's courage, what is your response, your wish?

Being a "Jeremiah" or receiving a "Jeremiah"

In the first reading of today's liturgy, Jeremiah 26: 1-9, Jeremiah is asked to speak to "the people of all the cities of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord; whatever I command you, tell them, and omit nothing. Perhaps they will listen and turn back, each from his evil way,...."  God's heart, I believe, cringes when you or I choose evil ways, when we make choices that are contrary to the will of God and that, therefore, deprive us of the peace, the joy, the harmony God wills for us or, worse, lead to disastrous, harmful ends.  God does not will that for any of us.  To spare us such misery or ongoing misery,because we have already chosen evil, God sends "Jeremiahs" to us or asks us to be a "Jeremiah" in the lives of others.

We know the greeting given Jeremiah. The people demanded that he be put to death.  When we are the one challenging another to abandon an ill-chosen path or when we are being challenged concerning inappropriate behavior, the response may be unpleasant.  Many times, we attempt to avoid conflict. So when God invites us to be a "Jeremiah," we may hide from Him. Or if God sends a "Jeremiah" to challenge us, we may respond belligerently, argumentatively, or aggressively, as did the people in the O.T. 

My prayer:  Lord, may each of us have the courage to co-operate with the grace of ongoing conversion, no matter who is the instrument you choose to bring us back to you. And, if you choose us to be that vehicle of grace in another person's life, may be rely on the power of the Spirit to guide us and strengthen us to be the one who speaks the truth that will set this person free, if the person is open. If not open, may be still do our part and surrender the outcome to You.

I am the Potter; you are the clay

Today’s first reading, Jeremiah 18: 1-6, is about the Divine Potter, who takes the clay that we are and the clay of our experiences and shapes them into an image of Himself, pours out His Spirit upon them, and makes them vehicles of love and forgiveness, uses them  in a way that empowers us to form right relationships.  As I reflected on that passage and the psalm of today’s liturgy, Ps. 146, what came into my consciousness was the following message:

“(Insert your name), as the psalmist says, there is no salvation in human beings.  None! Their plans vanish and are buried with them when they die (cf Ps. 146: 3-4). Your help, the saving graces that you seek, come from Me.  I am your God. I shepherd your soul.

“Just as I, the Divine Potter, formed you in your mother’s womb (Ps. 139: 13), so, too, do I give form, life and spirit to you now. The mystery of your becoming human is now the mystery of your becoming divine.  I alone can do that. I reshape and remold you  until the vessel I am making is pure gold, not the gold of this earth but the gold of eternity, the gold of a divine image that glorifies Me, praises Me, imitates Me and delights in Me as I delight in you. What delights me is not what delights the world. It is the difference between living from the heart, living from the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law.  Do not put your faith in the law. The law cannot save (compare Galatians 3: 10-14). Only I do that. Law does not give life. Only I do that.  When you build your life on the letter of the law, you build it on sand. A storm comes and it collapses.

When I said to the Lord: “But, Lord, laws are important,” I heard the following message in my consciousness:

“Not the kind deprived of spirit, of love, that are unjust, that are not life-giving, that are disrespectful of others, that do not promote right relationships, that do not honor Me or you.  Look at the Scriptures. I never used laws to humiliate people, to put them down. I never used laws to control people. Those behaviors lack spirit and are not motivated by love.”

These reflections left me with the question:  Am I turning out in such a way that the Divine Potter needs to remake me, reshape my behaviors, remold my attitudes, redirect my choices, and renew my energy in accordance with the will of God?

The Pearl of Great Price

The story in today’s Gospel, Mt.13: 44-46, is about the merchant who searches for “a treasure buried in a field.” He/She goes out to find that treasure. When found, this person sells all that he/she has and buys it. The author of the reflections for this Gospel given in the July/August 2012 issue of The Word among Us, p.52, suggests to us that the merchant is God.

Each of us is the pearl God is seeking.   We got buried in debris, so to speak, when Adam and Eve disobeyed and distrusted God—a disobedience and a distrust that all of us inherited.  Their turning away from God intensified God’s search for us.  The Son of God took on human nature to show us the way back to God and to redeem us from the destruction of sin: the loss of right relationship with God, our Creator, ourselves and one another.

 Imagine God saying to you:

(Insert your name), you  are the treasure I seek and for which I sent my only begotten Son into the world. He paid your ransom. You are now my precious pearl of great price. I want to find you, no matter what. I will look for you in any place where you have hidden yourself.  I will walk on whatever thorny path you are traveling and enter whatever cistern into which you have fallen. Even if you have wandered off into murky, muddy waters, I will enter those waters in search of you.   When I find you and you accept being found, I will polish you until you glow with my glory as the brightest star shines in the heavens.

God's heart is bent on us!  Where is your heart? For what does your heart pine? What treasures are you seeking? God is seeking you to join Him and all the angels and saints at the eternal banquet of love, beginning here on this earth.